What is the downside? I was thinking it could compromise software security, although my layman understanding is we’re better off if the open source community finds and makes problems visible?

Or there are other software secrets that we wouldn’t want state adversaries to see, like things that block your access under export control laws?

I think capitalism is a wonderful thing, having been born and lived half my life in communist rule. But in my older age I’m jaded maybe. If you have the means to control media and outright buy out influence and outcomes, of course you don’t need to use brute force to suppress the population. I think that’s the natural evolution of capitalism. It enriches many along the way but ultimately power goes to a smaller and smaller minority.

It’s not exactly the question you’re asking, but what I’m trying to say is, this is the natural outcome of our economic system. Tech organizations involvement in politics is a side effect.

Get a gym membership. Learn to squat, bench press, do some pulling motions.

Drink plenty of water.

Walk. You don’t have to do cardio exercise but try to walk every single day. At least 20-30 minutes. If you take a bus, get off earlier or later so you can walk.

Floss your teeth. If you get gum disease it’s permanent. It’s not that hard to get. Once your gums are diseased, they will recede slowly (or fast), and it will be painful to eat certain foods.

Seriously, please take care of your physical/fitness health and dental health.

No matter how much you love your work, the more you put in, the more others will take advantage of you if it suits them. Draw healthy boundaries. Don’t work every night or weekend. Use that time to read, go into nature, learn about the world, travel, and so on. Anyone who tells you money isn’t everything or “we don’t want people just in it for money” can fuck off. They’re there for MONEY. You don’t need to obsess with money, but your career is a means to financial freedom. Don’t kill yourself especially if your hard work is getting others promotions and making them rich while you merely just stay employed or get meager raises.

Also prioritize family and having a kid earlier than later. You won’t understand until you have a kid, but your children are your most valuable treasure. Once you have child, you’ll do anything for him or her. Bring that joy sooner than later.

I’m in leadership ic role at a big tec company. We pride ourselves in engineering.

hiring bar was dropped. expecting a mid level engineer to work with a byte buffer is considered “too complex” and non differentiated work.

the literal goal is to pump out features written up by mba/product team. none of these mbas use the product mind you. theyre chasing stupid features they think vice presidents want, because the thinking is it will drive promotions.

this is a cynical post and i will stop here. my org has problem of incentives. nothing else. you incentivize wrong things then this happens

At my work, I have colleagues who speak English as a second language. Many of them are using LLMs to up their document and other writing.

It’s actually quite awful. It’s obvious the text is LLM generated because of the verbose, generic writing style. It communicates clearly but without substance. Not gonna lie, I secretly judge these people.

Japanese notebooks and ball point pens. Dedicated notebook for individual projects. Daily planner.

If I really want to focus and stay organized, nothing beats pen and paper. I’ve tried out note taking apps, writing on my iPad, using my husband’s remarkable tablet, and Obsidian. It’s fun and interesting at first but doesn’t scale. I will however type some notes up, when needed, in Obsidian just for the search functionality. I’m still pen and paper first.

Amazon is less of a storefront and more of a logistics business. If Temu or anyone else seriously offered competition to take Amazon’s sales, I imagine they’d just pivot to offering Temu delivery.

Amazons core model is to try a million different things and see what sticks. That’s why they’re horrible at some things, and “ok” at others. They never really double down and deliver a truly amazing experience. The UI is so so. There are ads everywhere. Their electronic devices are pretty third rate toys to give to your 8 year old instead of a more expensive iPad. Even Prime Video mostly looks like shit compared to Netflix, though they do end up copying their interface.

I don’t share your optimism. The US was historically the land of opportunity, though often at the expense of imperialism, violent coupes, and endless wars. With the rise of non traditional/mainstream medias, younger generations see themselves economically imprisoned and can see through the cracks of an elite class that prioritizes its own financial interests above all else.

I hope I am wrong, but the establishment politicians see this danger. Tik Tok is a clear example - the anti Israel narrative, which was never tolerated in the mainstream press, is gaining more and more momentum. Congressional leaders, their financial backers, and Presidential candidates are all advocating some kind of ban or suppression of Tik Tok. And this is merely one example among so many divisive politics in the US.

I don’t think the younger generations will just roll over if you offer them cheap TVs, iPhones, or cheaper Big Macs. Something drastic has to happen.

>I don’t think the younger generations will just roll over if you offer them cheap TVs, iPhones, or cheaper Big Macs.

That's actually why I think @caprock has it right. The younger generations are building on doors that Gen X opened for them in the workplace. They are the ones demanding climate solutions. They are making it clear they aren't going to limp along until retirement when they can finally get Medicare. The political left is likely going to go through a moment sometime in the next decade where we have a political crossroads much like what conservatives have undergone, but my guess is that we will be better for it politically and as a nation. I'm expecting a reinvigoration of American industry unlike anything in my lifetime, and we'll see real movement on the major political issues.

Can you elaborate more on Gen X opening doors for younger generations? Amidst all the anti-Boomer/anti-Millennial rhetoric I tend to see bandied about online, I rarely hear anything about what good or bad Gen X has done, at least in the US. In my head, they seem like they're just along for the ride with no real effort put into major social or economic change. I am likely wrong.

Open to different perspectives since the public conversation seems to shift toward generational differences, whereas I tend to stand firmly in the "eat the rich" camp and ignore any commentary on generations. I may need to start paying more attention to that.

Something to consider: Gen X is the smallest of the generations currently living. When people say things like "Why won't younger people run for president?" you've got to realize that there are simply statistically fewer people in the age cohort that would be expected to be stepping into leadership. So that's part of why Gen X is less visible. Also, as a generation we are less likely to toot our horn, so to speak.

But - that doesn't mean that behind the scenes there haven't been plenty of Gen X that demanded remote work, demanded better pay, wanted more women in tech, etc. From my perspective, I see Millenials et al capturing the benefits that we started pushing for when we entered the workforce in the 1990s and early 2000s.

What problem are we trying to solve?

When I think of holding in memory state, to me it’s less about class or OOP vs something else and more about race conditions, thread safety, possibly idempotency, and proper abstraction design.

Abstraction design meaning, I’m not exposing the keys to the castle or leaking internal details where it might allow another good intentioned programmer to do bad things or introduce some subtle, difficult to reproduce bug.

  > Has anyone ever been promoted to an engineering manager and decided it wasn't for them?

Engineering manger and IC are different jobs. An EM title is never a promotion. It is a career or job role change. The skill sets and value proposition are entirely different.

So much personal stress and in some cases negative team or business impact could be prevented if we stop thinking of management as a promotion and more as a career shift.

If you’re unhappy, think about root causing what specifically it is you’re unhappy about. If you DO want to be a manager but not for this team, that’s a different challenge than if you do not want to manage people at all.

If it’s something you don’t want to do, have a heart to heart with your direct manager and tell him or her how you feel. This is less about quitting - if your manager is worth working for, they’ll give you the right encouragement to stay in the role and help remove obstacles and unnecessary challenges off your plate. Or they should help you transition and return to an IC role.